It’s difficult to assess which milestone is more impressive – Apple reaching the 40 billion iOS app download mark, or Apple achieving half of those downloads (20 billion) in 2012 alone?
Either way, both achievements belong to Apple this Monday morning. And the celebratory press release was dropped first thing today.
“It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community,” boasts Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Developers have made over seven billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world.”
Cue says the App Store now has over 500 million active accounts and had a record-breaking December with over two billion downloads during the month.
Included in today’s press release was confirmation of other noteworthy statistics pertinent to the App Store’s unbridled expansion.
Apple’s developer community, for example, has now created over 775,000 apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide.
In case you’re curious, the 40 billion app download benchmark refers only to unique downloads. In other words, re-downloads and updates are not being used to inflate that number.
